Ramshackle defending spoils Dutchman's fond farewell

The Park Lane stand bellowed Martin Jol's name one final time last night, demanding a wave as the home side foundered yet again. When the manager's acknowledgement eventually came, his wave was one of farewell as well as appreciation.

This was a suitably surreal and deflating occasion to mark the end of Jol's near three-year reign at White Hart Lane. This season was supposed to be glorious, a chance to disrupt the top four, though it descended into farce in the wake of the public relations disaster which was the visit of Paul Kemsley, the vice-chairman, and the club secretary, John Alexander, to Spain in August to court Juande Ramos.

Jol had been a dead man walking ever since, though the manner of his final appearance in the dug-out defied belief.

A vital Uefa Cup group game was surrendered with barely as whimper to Getafe, a side in a similarly dire predicament in their domestic league. Jol was uncharacteristically muted in the technical area, his sacking having been formalised before the kick-off. If he had hoped to bow out in a blaze of glory then his plan seriously back-fired.

Spurs' deficiencies merely pursued them into this contest. Their defence, ramshackle at best, maintained their appalling form of the opening three months of the season with Anthony Gardner taken off on a stretcher, their full-backs visibly nervous and Michael Dawson and Younes Kaboul far too jittery for comfort throughout. Getafe cut through Tottenham almost at will during the first half, then pounced when they needed to in the second.

The ease with which the Spanish prevailed might suggest Daniel Levy's stance on Jol was appropriate. The visitors might have scored twice in the opening six minutes, fell behind, but were gifted a comical equaliser when Radek Cerny panicked at Esteban Granero's free-kick and, distracted by Rubén de la Red's darting run, allowed the ball to drift into his net. Jol kicked the ground in disgust, his manic celebrations with his coaches, Hans Segers and Chris Hughton, 90 seconds earlier forgotten. Spurs gleaned a lead with one of their first attacks, Jermain Defoe converting after excellent approach play from Pascal Chimbonda and Dimitar Berbatov. But that was as good as their evening got.

The Spanish sat deeper after that, confident that Spurs would implode at some stage. Some 20 minutes from the end, David Cortes duly squeezed space out on the right with Braulio, ignored by Kaboul, conjuring a glorious flick to secure this club's most impressive result in continental competition and condemn Spurs to a first European defeat at White Hart Lane since 1985, and only a second ever.

Steed Malbranque missed a presentable opportunity and Dawson thumped a header on to the bar late on, but the hosts were too frenetic and panicked to force parity. "This is a hard world, the football world," said the visitors' coach, Michael Laudrup, in the aftermath. "One year you are fantastic and the next year the opposite. But given what Martin did last year, I don't think he'll have trouble finding a new job." He leaves a club behind in need of swift revival.

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